Minor

The term "Minor" as used by Blavatsky in this specific instance is not a direct translation from a single ancient language but rather a descriptive label applied to the figure of Bergelmir. Bergelmir is a name from Old Norse mythology, derived from Berg meaning "mountain" and gelmir possibly related to "roar" or "cry," suggesting a mountainous, resounding figure.

Bergelmir (Scand.). The one giant who escaped in a Ituai the geiiei-al slaughter of his brothers, the giant Ymir's children, drowned in the blood of their raging Father. He is tbe Scandinavain Noah, as he, too, becomes tiie father of giants after the Deluge. The lays of tlie Norsemen siiow the grandsons of the divine Buri — Odin. "Wili, and "SVe — conquering and killing tiie terrible giant Ymir, and creating the world out of his body.

Blavatsky’s characterization of Bergelmir as the "Scandinavian Noah" is a potent act of comparative mythology, a technique she wielded with masterful effect to bridge disparate cosmologies. The story of Bergelmir, escaping the flood of his father Ymir's blood in a hollowed-out trough, is not merely a tale of survival but a profound allegory for the perennial human experience of cosmic renewal. Mircea Eliade, in his seminal work The Myth of the Eternal Return, meticulously charted these patterns of cyclical time, demonstrating how cultures across the globe conceptualized destruction as a necessary prelude to rebirth. The deluge, whether of blood or water, signifies the dissolution of an old order, a return to chaos or undifferentiated potentiality. Bergelmir’s survival, then, is the preservation of the germinal principle, the spark of life that can reanimate the void. This resonates deeply with the alchemical concept of the prima materia, the raw, unformed substance from which all things are made, or the Jungian notion of the unus mundus, the underlying unified reality from which the manifest world emerges. The "minor" giant, paradoxically, carries the major burden of future existence. His escape is not a passive act but an active participation in the cosmic dance of dissolution and reintegration, a testament to the enduring power of life’s impulse to persist and transform, even in the face of overwhelming annihilation. The imagery of the trough, a vessel for new life amidst the remnants of the old, speaks to the quiet, often overlooked cradles of hope that emerge from profound endings.